After its regional debut in Thailand late last year, Suzuki Philippines has just revealed the prices and details of the Philippine-spec 2016 Ciaz. The Suzuki Ciaz expands the company's local lineup to 9 cars and joins the Alto 800, Swift, Swift Dzire, Jimny, Etiga, APV, Kizashi and Grand Vitara. Yesterday, Suzuki Philippines invited members of the press for a first drive of the 2016 Suzuki Ciaz in the Southern Tagalog region.

Based on the 2013 Authentics concept, Suzuki described the new sedan of having a stylish design, comfortable and spacious cabin, efficient powertrain and high safety standards. For its design, it features a sporty and elegant finish that consists of defined character lines, prominent arches and splashes of chrome.

The B-segment sedan will be sold alongside the Swift Dzire and will be up against the likes of the Chevrolet Sonic sedan, Honda City, Mazda 2 and Toyota Vios. Measuring in at 4,490mm long , 1,730mm wide and 1,475mm tall, this makes the Ciaz the largest B-Segment sedan in the market today. The Ciaz comes in three variants: The GL manual, GL automatic and top-spec GLX, which is only available as an automatic.

Inside, it features a mix of soft-touch materials along with silver and chrome accents on the door cards, dashboard and center console. GL models get a Windows CE based touchscreen units with navigation while the GLX gets an 8-inch Android-based touchscreen infotainment system. It comes standard with wireless connectivity and preloaded apps like Waze, Facebook, YouTube and Gmail.

For the Philippine market, the Suzuki Ciaz is powered by the 1.4 liter KB14 engine found in the Ertiga MPV which the B-Segment sedan shares the same platform. It puts out 98 PS and 130 Nm of torque which is then transferred to either a 4-speed automatic or 5-speed manual. On to safety, the Ciaz is equipped with dual airbags along with anti-lock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution.